Safety Cones (Hansard, 24 February 1986)

§ 10. Mr. Dykes
asked the Secretary of State for Transport what assessment he has made of the implications for traffic flows on motorways and major trunk roads undergoing repairs and maintenance of the numbers and location of safety cones, especially at weekends; and if he will make a statement.

§ Mr. Ridley
Traffic management arrangements at roadworks sites are designed to allow vehicles to pass safely through the works with as little delay as possible. We monitor the arrangements and revise our standard layouts when improvements are identified.

§ Mr. Dykes
As there is nothing more infuriating for hard-pressed motorists—who see too much congestion nowadays anyway, including on motorways—will my right hon. Friend reassure the House and the public, after all the discussion in the House last summer, that the excessive deployment of cones in lanes that are not being worked on, particularly at weekends, is now a thing of the past? There is still much mail about this subject, and people are fed up with it.

§ Mr. Ridley
There are reasons why sometimes there are some cones with no visible work. Concrete may be setting, it may be too cold for asphalt laying, the cones may have been set up for work to start shortly, or work may be taking place underneath the structures. Equally, on many occasions cones are there for no good purpose. I wish that agent authorities would apply the same spirit of urgency to moving cones as I do to getting the contracts done by applying the lane rental system, which has saved up to 25 per cent. of the time of the works.

§ Mr. Snape
Are we not the only developed country that is happy to have miles of cones for yards of work—particularly at weekends as the hon. Member for Harrow, East (Mr. Dykes) said—or for no work? Will the Secretary of State look at other parts of the world—he can have a long trip if he likes—to see how they do it? Does this happen because much of the coning is carried out by a private company, which perhaps can charge so much per cone and use as many as possible?

§ Mr. Ridley
No, Sir. Coning is carried out by agent authorities, which are usually the county councils. I have already reminded them, and I shall do so again, that they should not leave cones in place for a minute longer than is necessary. Our system of lane rental, whereby a contractor is paid a bonus if he finishes the contract early, has reduced the time by 25 per cent. in many cases. It is the envy of the world. I am afraid that I shall not have time to go round the world, because so many foreigners are coming here to see what we are doing.

§ Mr. Higgins
Given the success of that incentive scheme, will my right hon. Friend consider imposing penalties on agencies that leave the cones in place unnecessarily?

§ Mr. Ridley
I have looked at that very point, but it is very difficult to think of a legal way of imposing a penalty on one's agent.